On Saturday Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters in Dayton, Ohio, that a loss in the 2024 election would result in a “bloodbath.” His campaign was quick to claim his warning only applied to the US auto industry, but as former Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, who worked in the Trump administration for 7 months, said, the comment is “a warning call to his supporters he’s telling them kind of marching orders almost.”
Matthews was a guest on “Inside Jen Psaki” Monday night when she was asked about her former boss’ behavior. Psaki and Matthews agreed the comment deserves to be considered carefully—and taken very seriously.
Matthews, who resigned from her post after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, explained, “This one comment they’re [The Trump campaign] saying is overblown, but it does follow a proven track record of these kinds of unhinged comments from him, and increasingly violent rhetoric and apocalyptic rhetoric almost.”
She went on to imply that Trump could be calling his supporters to stage another insurrection. “When he says things like there’s going to be ‘death and destruction,’ if he’s charged in these criminal cases. That is, I think, a warning call to his supporters he’s telling them kind of marching orders almost and we saw this happen in the lead-up from the election in 2020 to January 6, where he told them to come to the Capitol, he said it was going to be a wild day that we needed to save our country,” Matthews added.
“So, he’s putting these kinds of messages out there, hoping that they’ll act on them.”
Matthews also spoke to the Trump campaign’s official line that the “bloodbath” he referred to is merely economic in nature. She said, “And in my eyes—yeah, sure, he could have been talking about the economy but I think when you’re looking at who the messenger was of this message, this is a man who helped incite a deadly insurrection on our nation’s Capitol. So when he’s using terms like bloodbath, it’s really hard for me to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
The former Trump employee also admitted that she “couldn’t imagine going to him or even cast a vote for him, given everything that’s transpired,” primarily because of the events of Jan. 6 and Trump’s lack of “remorse for what happened that day.”
Trump defended himself via Truth Social Monday morning, claiming as he has after previous, ambiguously violent rhetoric that he was being taken out of context and was speaking only about the U.S. auto industry.
Trump’s language has grown increasingly dark as it’s become apparent he will be the Republican Party’s candidate against President Biden in November. He has been particularly preoccupied with undocumented immigrants, whom he described as “animals,” as well as with his political opponents, whom he labeled “vermin.”
Watch the interview with Sarah Matthews in the video above.